Alter Ego

Few composers represent the soul of the piano with such truth and are so deeply identified with their instrument. A century apart, Frédéric Chopin and Federico Mompou seem to belong to the same family, to those who know how to listen to the piano speak. In "Alter ego", Célimène Daudet questions the close links between these two composers and pursues her lifelong quest to make the piano sing.

Rebecca Taio’s choice to programme these well-known pieces from the great repertoire for violin and piano has to do with the technical challenges they pose, both instrumentally and interpretatively. In the flautist’s words: ‘It’s an incredibly fascinating and stimulating idea for me to try out timbres that are different to the ones I’m usually accustomed to, different to those the majority of composers who have written for the flute have been inspired by. In these transcriptions I have aimed for a more romantic and less delicate way of playing the flute, inspired by the long-drawn-out, sustained phrases and intense vibrato so characteristic of string instruments in this sort of repertoire.’